The present invention relates to a series of new oxetane derivatives, whose molecular structure is characterized by a four-membered ring containing an oxygen atom (i.e. an oxetane ring) and which have agricultural and pharmaceutical anti-fungal or fungicidal activity. The invention also provides a process for preparing these compounds as well as methods and compositions containing them for the protection of animals, including humans, and plants from fungal attack.
Although many different types of triazole derivative having agricultural anti-fungal or fungicidal activities are already known, almost all of them lack the oxetane skeleton which is a characteristic of the compounds of the present invention.
European Patent Publication No. 106 515 discloses the use of certain 2-(triazolylmethyl)oxetan-4-one derivatives as intermediates in a process for the preparation of anti-fungal agents (which are not oxetane derivatives), but these intermediates are structurally different from the compounds of the present invention and they have not, in themselves, been found to have any anti-fungal activity.
Additionally, European Patent Publication No. 318 214 discloses the use of a limited number of 2-(triazolylmethyl)oxetane derivatives as, inter alia, anti-fungal agents, although this prior specification is mainly concerned with the corresponding tetrahydrofuranyl compounds, and the 2-(triazolylmethyl)oxetane derivatives specifically disclosed in it differ from those of the present invention in the nature of the substituent on the 4-position of the oxetane ring.
We have now discovered a series of novel triazole compounds having an oxetane skeleton, which differ structurally from known triazole derivatives, and which possess excellent pharmaceutical and agricultural anti-fungal or fungicidal activities.